Life in Belfast as represented on its walls – Murals, Graffiti, Street Art

In addition to the defacing of Carson (see We Won’t Have Carson), a 32 County Sovereignty Movement mural remains about a quarter of the way along the newly repainted International Wall. (And as will be covered in a separate post, an IRPWA POW mural was in progress at the far right end of the wall.)

We understand that the painters offered to repaint the 32CSM mural after the historical mural had been in place for six months, but that this offer was turned down. For the purposes of the launch, then, a cloth sign, reproducing a poster (see the original) calling for the creation of the Irish Volunteers, was hung over the 32CSM mural (as seen in the image above). Eoin MacNeill, author in November 1913 of ‘The North Began’, presided – here is the text of The North Began – and the newspaper carried by the hawker on the left reads “MacNeill successful in call for Irish Volunteers” (whereas it originally read “Rotunda rally – Irish volunteers now exceed 180,000” as can be seen in the Carson post). However, this cloth was removed immediately after the launch, meaning that the wall appears as in the image below.

Have you spotted a mural or piece of graffiti? Please send tips (and photos) to extramuralactivity@gmail.com or tag us on Twitter

Welcome to Extramural Activity!

For the full effect, we recommend that you view images at full size – click on the image to see it in a separate page and then click again for the image by itself.

If you have any information about a mural/graffiti/street art, please leave a comment on the post. Questions, too.

We would love to hear from you. Please get in touch by e-mail if you want to use an image. You can get the original, full-size, version and without the copyright notice. (Our images have been used by scholars writing articles and dissertations, documentary film-makers, charities, civic groups, theatre companies, and other blogs.)

We are also available for talks (and tours) to schools and other groups.

Some of the most familiar murals are listed together just below 'For Beginners'.

Completists should check out the Extramural Activity map of murals, graffiti (both those featured on the blog and others) plus "peace" lines and re-drawn estates of the past.